Silo Questions

[mcvinyl]

Hi all,

An early 90's Silo just popped up on ebay over here in Aus. I asked the guy to send me some pics to see what kind of condition it's in. It looks to have an aftermarket trem on it. I don't know too much about the earlier EBMM's but that trem doesn't look original to me, also look at how the locking nut has been fixed. I was thinking about grabbing it but these pics have worried me a little.

Can anyone shed some light as to whether or not EBMM did have a trem ike this on their early models?

Simon

[fogman]

that looks sweet!

any idea what that colour is called?

[NorM]

That appears to be the Wilkinson Tremolo. EBMM put them on for a while but I don't know the time frame. Also I think the color is a trans red. That is a very pretty guitar.

[Raz]

It looks modified, I mean I've never seen a locking nut applied on the headstock...why would they put a regular nut, plus the locking one?

[jongitarz]

Raz..I just worked on a Jackson with the same thing going on at the nut....A regular nut, and the locking nut behind it. Sumbish will NOT stay in tune!

[mcvinyl]

Hmm,

Thanks guys, the seller said the serial # is 90357. Any chance of providing some details John? He says that he bought it from new and that's how it came.

Oh well, some fools have begun bidding on it already and the auction doesn't end for 6 days yet. I hate it when people drive the price up early

Thanks for all of the feedback.

Simon

[Raz]

Raz..I just worked on a Jackson with the same thing going on at the nut....A regular nut, and the locking nut behind it. Sumbish will NOT stay in tune!

Blasphemy, I sure hope you washed your hands after touching that...that...NON EBMM...but seriously I thought you only worked on the good kind

[Colin]

Simon,

Just because your wife is overseas doesn't mean you can buy another guitar.
I wish my wife was overseas.

Colin

[mcvinyl]

Colin, If I buy it can I hide it at your house?

[John C]

It looks modified, I mean I've never seen a locking nut applied on the headstock...why would they put a regular nut, plus the locking one?

Actually that looks like the original trem EBMM used on the Silhouettes; it's definitely not the Wilkinson used on the early Silo Specials. I think Schaller made these trems but they were originally marketed here in the USA by Schecter as the "Tremlock" tremolo; these are found on a lot of 1984/85 Schecter strat-types and typically date them to the Dallas-era "production" guitars versus the California (i.e. Tom Aderson)-era one-offs. However, if I'm recalling correctly the Schecter bodies were routed so the trem sat flush on the face of the body while the EBMMs were routed so you could pull up on the trem.

That locking nut is also stock - the Schecters were exactly the same. Someone had a 1985 Schecter for sale up on The Gear Page a couple of weeks ago, and the bridge/locking nut were exactly the same as this Silo. This person had 4 old Schecters for sale; I guess he sold three of them because that post is gone and has been replaced with a post for the remaining Schecter - a Pete Townshend tele.

You can also see a Silhouette with this tremolo system on it in Tony Bacon's "Ultimate Guitar Book"; it shows a light-blue Silo with the Ernie Ball Strings "bird" logo from the string packages that was made for the NAMM Show circa 1985 or 1986. I'll check the book when I get home tonight.

EDITED TO ADD: These bridges had rollers for the strings like a Kahler, and the fine-tuner design makes for a very large route under the bridge, almost like what you would find under a flat-mount Kahler. The bridge pivots on a long knife-edge that fits into a metal housing bolted to the body of the guitar, kind of like the Fender trems on the 1983 Elites and 2-knob Standards from the end of the CBS-era. How do I know so much about these? Back in early 1985 I was going to have a local shop assemble me a guitar from various Schecter parts and spent a couple of days dissecting the bridge. This shop went out of business before I got out of the discussion phase. I didn't see this type of bridge again until I played a Silo at Manny's in NYC when I was on a business trip in 1989.

[jongitarz]

Dob 5/02/90

[mcvinyl]

Wow, thanks for all of the great info guys.

Simon

[Warg Master]

I've seen trems like that on other brands (I wont name here ) that cam stock on the guitar...They actually worked just fine. No issues with intonation or tuning, stayed intune with heavy use too. I'll still stick with EBMM vintage trem, personally.